Baeda Maryam of Ethiopia

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Baeda Maryam (Ge'ez በእደ ማርያም ba'ida māryām "He who is in the Hand of Mary," Amh. be'ide māryām) (1448 - November 8, 1478) was nəgusä nägäst (August 26, 1468 - November 8, 1478) of Ethiopia, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty. Born at Dabra Berhan, he was the son of Zara Yaqob by Seyon Morgasa.¹

Towards the end of Zara Yaqob's life, he became increasingly convinced that members of his family were plotting against him, and had several of them beaten. Baeda Maryam's mother Seyon Morgasa died from this mistreatment in 1462, and Baeda Maryam buried his mother in secret in the church of Maqdesa Maryam, near Dabra Berhan, and donated incense and other gifts to support the church. Zara Yaqob then directed his anger at Baeda Maryam, until members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church repaired the rift between the two, and Zara Yaqob publicly designated Baeda Maryam as his successor.

With his own mother dead, Baeda Maryam gave Eleni, a wife of his father, the title of Queen Mother. She proved to be an effective member of the royal family, and Paul B. Henze comments that she "was practically co-monarch" during his reign.² However, Edward Ullendorff notes Baeda Maryam was unable to hold together the far-flung empire his father left him: "some of the outlying provinces recently conquered began to grow restive; the feudal lords whom Zar'a Ya'qob had only ephemerally brought under central control reasserted their regional authority; and the senior clergy relapsed into some of the old-established ways of conduct and ecclesiastical organization."³

Baeda Maryam moved his court to the Gurage country, using it as a base for campaigns in Dawaro and Bale. His constant campaigning led to a peace treaty with Muhammad, the son of Badlay ibn Sa'ad ad-Din, and used the peace it brought to his southern borders to successfully campaign against the restive Falasha in his northern territories. But on Muhammad's death, war with Adal flared up once again.

Baeda Maryam died at Abasi Wera Gabayi, but he was buried in a tomb at Atrousa Maryam, on the left bank of the Abay River, which was notable for its painting of Mary and Christ by the artist Brancaleon, a Venetian who had come to live in Ethiopia. His tomb was later destroyed in an Oromo raid in 1709, when they sacked the church, enslaved or killed all of the people present, and hurled the coffin of Baeda Maryam over the nearby cliffs.⁴

[edit] References

His Chronicle is translated in part by Richard K. P. Pankhurst, The Ethiopian Royal Chronicles (Addis Ababa: Oxford University Press, 1967).
Paul B. Henze, Layers of Time, A History of Ethiopia (New York: Palgrave, 2000), p.75.
Edward Ullendorff, The Ethiopians: An Introduction to the Country and People, second edition (London: Oxford University Press, 1960), p. 70.
E. A. Wallis Budge, A History of Ethiopia: Nubia and Abyssinia, 1928 (Oosterhout, the Netherlands: Anthopological Publications, 1970), pp. 313f.